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Blizzard's next MMO: A Starcraft MMO or a Diablo MMO?
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Ever since it was discovered that Blizzard was working on a new MMO, the rumors have been flying on what that MMO would turn out to be. Is it a Starcraft MMO? Is it a Diablo MMO? Is it a World of Warcraft sequel? Or is it something entirely new?
No one is quite sure, and Blizzard is keeping mum on the subject. What we do know is that World of Warcraft game director Jeff Kaplan is working on the new Blizzard MMO. In an interview with MTV, Kaplan said:
"I'm shocked we haven't seen more sci-fi, near-future, post-apocalyptic, historical MMOs; there's all these completely different fantasy settings beyond the traditional high fantasy ones."
In another MTV interview, Frank Pearce, Executive Vice President of Product Development, said the following concerning the prospect of creating an entirely new game franches:
"Whether or not it makes sense to have another subscription-based MMO competing against "World of Warcraft" within the Blizzard space is hard to say. At some point, some product's going to come along and cannibalize the "World of Warcraft" player base, and if it's going to happen, it'd be better for us to cannibalize our own player base compared to having another publisher do it."
And in an interview with Wired, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said:
"We're not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We're trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released."
With that, I think we can safely rule out a World of Warcraft sequel. And it would certainly seem like Massively's guess at a Starcraft MMO fits the bill.
A Diablo MMO? Probably not.
But can we count a Diablo MMO out? On the surface, it doesn't make sense to do another fantasy MMO with the success of World of Warcraft, but as Frank Pearce said, if someone's going to offer real competition to WoW, it might as well be Blizzard. There's also the prospect of going in a completely different direction. One issue with current MMOs, especially fantasy-themed MMOs, is that they all seem to be EQ Clones. Yes, even WoW. They all operate by very similar mechanics.
What about an isometric MMO? After all, it worked for Ultima Online. An isometric action-rpg MMO might make for a very interseting idea. And if you could combine Rogue-like elements such as randomly-generated dungeons (difficult, but not impossible in an MMO setting), it would be possible to create a fantasy MMO unlike anything else out there.
A long-shot at best -- the smart money is on a Starcraft MMO -- but not completely outside the range of possibility.
One other options is a completely new intellectual property, or at least an IP new to Blizzard. In the MTV interview, Jeff Kaplan was asked if the new MMO would be sci-fi, near-future, post-apocalyptic or historical. "All of those combined," he replied, laughing.
A joke? Almost certainly, but what if...
The Rifts MMO
Rifts is a pen-and-paper role-playing game based on the idea of rifts opening on Earth that lead to new worlds -- new worlds that can be sci-fi, near-future, post-apocalyptic or historical. Really, anything that can be imagined.
A crossover RPG for other Palladium products, Rifts was created in 1990 and is still going strong. The main world is a future Earth with sci-fi elements, but the fun of the game was jumping into rifts and into unique and widely-divergent adventures.
Talk about the MMO to end all MMOs!
While the possibility of Blizzard working on a Rifts MMO is about the same as me purchasing two tickets to lotteries in different states and winning both, we can still dream, right?
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